[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 200 (Monday, December 1, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H4923-H4926]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COUNT THE CRIMES TO CUT ACT
Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill
(H.R. 2159) to direct the Attorney General of the United States to
submit to the Congress a report on Federal criminal offenses, and for
other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 2159
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Count the Crimes to Cut
Act''.
SEC. 2. REPORT ON FEDERAL CRIMINAL OFFENSES.
(a) Definitions.--In this section--
(1) the term ``criminal regulatory offense'' means a
Federal regulation that is enforceable by a criminal penalty;
and
(2) the term ``criminal statutory offense'' means a
criminal offense under a Federal statute.
(b) Report on Criminal Statutory Offenses.--Not later than
1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Attorney
General shall submit to the Committee on the Judiciary of the
Senate and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of
Representatives a report, which shall include--
(1) a list of all criminal statutory offenses, including a
list of the elements for each criminal statutory offense; and
(2) for each criminal statutory offense listed under
paragraph (1)--
(A) the potential criminal penalty for the criminal
statutory offense;
(B) the number of prosecutions for the criminal statutory
offense brought by the Department of Justice each year for
the 15-year period preceding the date of enactment of this
Act; and
(C) the mens rea requirement for the criminal statutory
offense.
(c) Report on Criminal Regulatory Offenses.--
(1) Reports.--Not later than 1 year after the date of
enactment of this Act, the head of each Federal agency
described in paragraph (2) shall submit to the Committee on
the Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on the
Judiciary of the House of Representatives a report, which
shall include--
(A) a list of all criminal regulatory offenses enforceable
by the agency; and
(B) for each criminal regulatory offense listed under
subparagraph (A)--
(i) the potential criminal penalty for a violation of the
criminal regulatory offense;
(ii) the number of violations of the criminal regulatory
offense referred to the Department of Justice for prosecution
in each of the years during the 15-year period preceding the
date of enactment of this Act; and
(iii) the mens rea requirement for the criminal regulatory
offense.
(2) Agencies described.--The Federal agencies described in
this paragraph are the Department of Agriculture, the
Department of Commerce, the Department of Education, the
Department of Energy, the Department of Health and Human
Services, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department
of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of the
Interior, the Department of Labor, the Department of
Transportation, the Department of the Treasury, the Commodity
Futures Trading Commission, the Consumer Product Safety
Commission, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the
Export-Import Bank of the United States, the Farm Credit
Administration, the Federal Communications Commission, the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Election
Commission, the Federal Labor Relations Authority, the
Federal Maritime Commission, the Federal Mine Safety and
Health Review Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the
National Labor Relations Board, the National Transportation
Safety Board, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the
Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, the Office
of Compliance, the Postal Regulatory Commission, the
Securities and Exchange Commission, the Securities Investor
Protection Corporation, the Environmental Protection Agency,
the Small Business Administration, the Federal Housing
Finance Agency, and the Office of Government Ethics.
(d) Index.--Not later than 2 years after the date of
enactment of this Act--
(1) the Attorney General shall establish a publically
accessible index of each criminal statutory offense listed in
the report required under subsection (b) and make the index
available and freely accessible on the website of the
Department of Justice; and
(2) the head of each agency described in subsection (c)(2)
shall establish a publically accessible index of each
criminal regulatory offense listed in the report required
under subsection (c)(1) and make the index available and
freely accessible on the website of the agency.
(e) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be
construed to require or authorize appropriations.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Roy) and the gentlewoman from Georgia (Mrs. McBath) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas.
General Leave
Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Texas?
There was no objection.
Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, first of all, I thank the gentlewoman from Georgia for
joining with me in this effort. I thank the minority leader for his
past work on this bill, as well, from his position on the Judiciary
Committee, like the gentlewoman from Georgia.
We may come at these things from slightly different perspectives on
different issues that come before us, but we are bound and joined
together here in wanting some commonsense, good government to make sure
that we know what we are dealing with, with respect to criminal laws.
For decades, the American people, Congress, and corners of the Federal
Government have tried to grasp a reliable estimate of how many criminal
laws exist either in statute or in regulation.
In the 1980s, the Department of Justice tried to count the number of
Federal criminal laws that reside within the code and estimated there
are ``about 3,000 criminal offenses.'' The American Bar Association, in
the 1990s, said it was much higher than 3,000 but couldn't figure out
the number. In 2019, the U.S. Code was estimated to have 5,199 Federal
crimes, but again, that was uncertain.
In other words, the Department of Justice, the American Bar
Association, and organizations within our government are guessing.
Now, to be clear, there are estimated to be thousands of criminal
offenses, many buried in regulatory codes. For context, there are an
estimated 300,000 Federal regulations that carry criminal offenses that
could put an American citizen in prison.
We can debate the merits, and we would debate the merits no doubt
among the Members of this body, of any particular statute that
criminalizes a certain act or any particular regulation that comes with
criminal penalties associated with an action. It might be something
that involves OSHA. It might be something that involves environmental
regulations. It might be something else.
There are thousands upon thousands of regulations and statutes, and
the American people often have no idea that they might be in violation
of something that would come with a penalty that might include jail
time or sufficient fines, and so forth, and they potentially could
become a felon.
This bill is pretty simple. It just directs the Federal Government
and the executive branch to count the crimes, to come up with a list of
the crimes that exist, put those in order, and make sure that we know
what offenses are attached to those so that we can go through this and
make decisions as to whether or not these crimes are duplicative,
whether they might be contradictory, and whether maybe they go too far
or not far enough.
We feel like the people's House, for sure--Congress in its Article I
function--ought to know how many crimes there are and what penalties
are associated with those crimes so that the American people can know
this.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mrs. McBATH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Roy for working with me. This is
a true representation of good government and what it looks like for
bipartisanship, and I hope we are able to do more of this going
forward.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today for the sake of an effective criminal
justice system. The laws within our criminal code, as has been
expressed before, have become outdated and a highway to
overcriminalization. We have so many unlawful acts within our criminal
code that we don't even know how many criminal laws there are.
That is why we need to pass the Count the Crimes to Cut Act of 2025,
[[Page H4924]]
which would mandate the creation of a comprehensive inventory, as we
have expressed, of all Federal criminal, statutory, and regulatory
offenses.
I am really proud to co-lead this commonsense and, as I said before,
bipartisan solution that will help us address the pressing issue of
overcriminalization, a troubling result of unchecked growth of our
Federal criminal law.
For too long, new Federal crimes have been created without a full
understanding of what criminal laws already exist. Six years ago,
policy organizations estimated that we have over 5,000 Federal crimes,
many of which, as we have stated before, are redundant, overly broad,
or better left to the States, or are so obscure that the public has no
practical way of knowing that they even exist. In some cases, these
laws are so vague that even a reasonable person would struggle to
understand what conduct is prohibited.
This massive and unorganized body of Federal criminal law puts well-
intentioned, law-abiding citizens definitely at risk. Legal scholars
suggest that everyday Americans may unknowingly violate multiple
Federal crimes without ever being made aware of it. Yet, we cannot
meaningfully address the consequences of this bloated system until we
fully understand the scope of the problem.
Over the last few decades, the number of Federal criminal offenses
has dramatically increased to more than 5,000, and that figure doesn't
even account for the countless additional crimes created by Federal
regulations. Despite several previous attempts to determine the number
of criminal offenses that are currently on the books, the fact is, we
still don't know.
The Count the Crimes to Cut Act, which I am very proud to cosponsor,
is a necessary first step toward comprehensive, data-driven reform that
truly works.
By finally establishing a complete inventory of these offenses, we
can effectively evaluate how they are enforced, understand the intent
requirements associated with each one of these laws, and determine
where reforms to mens rea standards are necessary. We will also be able
to identify redundant or outdated laws that serve no public safety
purpose at all.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to support this very reasonable
bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Georgia for her
comments.
Mr. Speaker, I would just add, in agreement with her, that, as I said
before, this simply says that the Attorney General should provide to
us, the people's House and this Congress, a list of all Federal crimes
in statute and regulation, along with pertinent information such as
potential criminal penalty, the mens rea requirement for the offense,
and the DOJ prosecutorial history of the statute.
I think this is the bare minimum that we should have as a body to
ensure that we are protecting due process and the rights of the
American people while ensuring that we have an ordered society.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr.
Biggs), my good friend.
{time} 1520
Mr. BIGGS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas
for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, the Federal Government has turned the criminal code into
a labyrinth, a maze so bloated and disorganized that not even the DOJ
can tell you how many Federal crimes exist.
That is why I rise in strong support of H.R. 2159, the Count the
Crimes to Cut Act, led by my friend, Chip Roy from Texas,
Representative McBath, who is the ranking member on our Subcommittee of
Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, and supported by Members of
both parties who understand that freedom collapses when the law becomes
unknowable.
This bill is co-led by staunch conservatives like Representative Roy
and myself and our colleagues, who occasionally think differently than
us, Mrs. McBath and Mr. Cohen. We disagree on a lot in this Chamber,
but we should all agree that Americans should know what conduct is
criminal before they are punished for it.
The Count the Crimes to Cut Act forces the DOJ to produce a complete
list of every Federal criminal statute with the specific legal
elements, the authorized penalties, and the number of prosecutions for
each offense over the last 15 years.
Right now, we literally cannot tell the American people how many
Federal crimes exist. I called the Congressional Research Service
several years ago because I was interested in this. They said we have
no idea.
Estimates range from 4,000 statutes to hundreds of thousands of
criminalized regulations, but no one actually knows because Washington
has never bothered to count them. This is the very definition of
overcriminalization: vague laws, hidden laws, duplicative laws, and
regulatory crimes that nobody could reasonably expect an ordinary
citizen to find or understand.
The Federal code has grown so bloated that a person can unknowingly
violate a regulation they have never heard of and the government can
still throw the book at them.
Even former Harvard University Professor Harvey Silverglate estimates
that the average American commits three felonies a day without even
knowing it.
Dr. Silverglate clearly wasn't referring to violent felonies like
murder or felonies like money laundering or fraud, but instead to those
vague, hidden, duplicative and sometimes downright silly laws.
I have other pending legislation; the End Endless Criminal Statutes
Act to repeal 10 unnecessary criminal offenses such as selling or
possessing colored oleomargarine or colored margarine unless they are
packaged and labeled or served in a triangular shape. That is far from
the only silly law still on the books.
It is illegal to use a falconry bird in a movie that isn't about
falconry, to sell runny ketchup, or to leave the country with too many
nickels in your pockets.
Here is the deal: We just have too many laws and too many crimes.
When the Federal Criminal Code becomes a weapon instead of a guide, it
is always the most vulnerable, the poor, the small business owners, the
persons who don't have a legal team on retainer who gets crushed first.
Overcriminalization is one of the most destructive features of the
modern Federal leviathan. We cannot restore liberty, shrink government,
or protect due process unless we first expose the scope of the problem
and that is what this bill attempts to do.
I am so pleased to be a sponsor, but I am proud to associate with my
cosponsors, Mr. Roy, Mrs. McBath, Mr. Cohen, and others.
This is very simple, Mr. Speaker: If you believe in liberty, you vote
``yes'' on H.R. 2159. If you believe the government should be
accountable to the people, you vote ``yes'' on H.R. 2159. If you
believe that Americans deserve to know the laws that can put them
behind bars, you vote ``yes'' on H.R. 2159. It is bipartisan, common
sense, and long overdue.
Mr. Speaker, I strongly urge my colleagues to support the Count the
Crimes to Cut Act.
Mrs. McBATH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from
Maryland (Mr. Raskin), our constitutional scholar and ranking member of
the Judiciary Committee.
Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mrs. McBath for yielding, Mr. Roy
for his leadership on this, and Mr. Biggs for his comments.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bipartisan legislation.
The Founders thought that Federal law would be strictly limited in two
different ways: one, according to the subject matter; and two,
according to number.
The subject matter of Federal criminal law requires that the conduct
being proscribed be tethered to a particular Federal jurisdictional
nexus, like interference with Federal interstate commerce or assault on
a Federal officer in doing his or her duty, or seditious conspiracy
against the Union, which is why the vast majority of crimes are
prosecuted at the local level like assault, murder, armed robbery,
theft, and so on.
Federal law would also be limited, the Founders thought, according to
number because the Federal criminal laws would be organized around
certain
[[Page H4925]]
specific principles forbidding criminal conduct that is clearly harmful
to everyone. As my colleagues have said, what we have seen is the
endless proliferation of criminal offenses, some of them statutory,
some of them regulatory, oftentimes in a kind of political reaction to
a particular event that might have been criminal already under a more
general category.
This legislation will allow us to get on top of the problem. It will
direct the Department of Justice and other Federal agencies to compile
a comprehensive report describing every Federal statutory and
regulatory criminal offense carrying penalties. These have grown
substantially over the last four decades, despite several previous
attempts by the Office of Legal Policy at DOJ, the American Bar
Association, and several scholars to determine exactly how many Federal
offenses there are.
There is simply not a single comprehensive accounting of Federal
criminal offenses to be found anywhere in the Federal Government, and
that is a pretty remarkable statement in itself.
Through the bipartisan Count the Crimes to Cut Act of 2025, Congress
and the people will finally get an inventory of all Federal statutory
and regulatory criminal offenses. Thanks to this bill, we will know the
specific elements of each offense, the potential criminal penalties,
the mens rea requirement, and the number of prosecutions that have
taken place each year for the preceding 15 years for every listed
offense.
Now, what is the danger of having too many criminal offenses? Some
people might just say, let's let sleeping dogs lie. What is the problem
with having proliferation of offenses that may be opaque, inscrutable,
obscure, and duplicative? One danger is the citizen doesn't know what
kind of conduct and behavior is actually expected of him or her. That
leaves the citizen in a state of confusion and potential anxiety.
The other major danger is that an unscrupulous executive will use
this nearly endless arsenal of criminal offenses to target political
foes or vulnerable communities. In a free society, anything that is not
specifically prohibited is allowed to you. That is what it means to
live in a free society. In an authoritarian society, anything that is
not specifically allowed to the population is considered prohibited and
a danger to the government.
Mr. Speaker, the proliferation of endless criminal offenses moves us
down that spectrum from being a free society much closer to an
authoritarian society. We all have a right to know exactly what the
criminal law entails at the Federal level.
Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I don't have a whole lot more to add. I
associate myself with the remarks of all of my colleagues who have
spoken on this matter. I would only add that I think it is important to
note that this legislation is supported by the Due Process Institute, R
Street, Right on Crime, as well as the National District Attorneys
Association and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers,
which I think tells you what is going on here in that everybody would
like to have some clarity and some transparency so we can have a
commonsense understanding of our criminal laws, the extent to which
they impact--as the gentleman from Maryland, I think, wisely noted--our
civil liberties, and the extent to which we are made aware of what
actions we take might be criminalized.
Mr. Speaker, I note as James Madison said in Federalist No. 62 on the
fundamental principles of representative government and the importance
of accessible and understandable laws: ``It will be of little avail to
the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the
laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that
they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they
are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who
knows what the law is today, can guess what it will be tomorrow.''
{time} 1530
That is precisely the situation we find ourselves in, and we should
fix it. We may have again, as I said before, some disagreements as to
what should be criminalized or not. Previous Congresses have decided to
criminalize some action that today we might take a second look at.
I do believe that we need to know and have the debate, and then be
able to allow the subcommittee on which my Judiciary Committee
colleagues serve, be able to review these, have open debate, and then
make some decisions.
Maybe some of these should be sunsetted. Maybe some should be
aligned. Maybe there are penalties that are out of whack. Maybe there
are things that should be done to have greater notice for the American
people.
I come together in good faith with my colleagues across the aisle and
hope that my colleagues in the Chamber will support it.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mrs. McBATH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Tennessee (Mr. Cohen).
Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I got on this bill when it was first
introduced, I think, last spring. Representative Roy and I have served
on the Judiciary Committee for quite a while, and I respect his
intellect. I certainly hope that he gets to be Attorney General of
Texas. That would be great for him, and I think it would be great for
Texas, too.
I will miss him in working on this act, Article I bill. We agreed to
work on that just as a kind of a legislative check on Article I
executive actions. That is something we may be able to bring up again
next year, although I think it was more popular in certain places when
President Biden was the President, but it is still an important bill.
This is a commonsense bill. It is bipartisan, and I am happy to be a
cosponsor. I look forward to the gentlewoman from South Carolina, the
gentlewoman from Georgia, the gentlewoman from Colorado, the gentleman
from Illinois, and all the other people who have been highlights of our
last week of legislation to vote with us in unanimous passage.
Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mrs. McBATH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time to
close.
Mr. Speaker, we cannot have effective reform of Federal criminal laws
without first passing and implementing the Count the Crimes to Cut Act.
This bill is not about simply making lists. It is about creating the
tools that we need for precise data-driven reform.
With concrete data, we can determine exactly which reforms are
needed, remove speculation from the process, and avoid unintentional,
unnecessary mistakes that could arise from a sweeping one-size-fits-all
approach.
Might I say, in the era that we are in right now, there seems to be a
lot of mistrust within our communities with law enforcement. We need to
be building those relationships, building community, and I think this
piece of legislation helps to really expedite that kind of community-
driven policing and helps to make sure that people feel safe and secure
in their communities.
I thank Congressman Roy for his leadership on this legislation, which
will help eliminate duplicative laws and allow us to better serve and
focus on the true threats to public safety, which are always a top
priority of mine.
I urge all of my colleagues to support this long overdue piece of
legislation. It is a bipartisan measure that really puts common sense
and accountability first. I thank my colleagues for their support on
this piece of legislation. I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Georgia for her comments. I
thank the gentleman from Tennessee for his kind remarks, the gentleman
from Maryland, all of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, and
my friend from Arizona. I also thank Judiciary Committee Chairman
Jordan. I thank the ranking member from Maryland who we have already
engaged with, and all of my colleagues who worked on this in the
Judiciary Committee.
This is not a long or major piece of legislation. I tend to think
that speaks well of it. I think the shorter the bill, the better.
I do believe that this is an important step, but I do want to remind
my colleagues it is just a step. I would hope that we would get swift
action out of the executive branch in following this
[[Page H4926]]
legislation if we are to get it through the Senate and get it signed so
we can make an understanding of what is happening with respect to our
criminal laws and regulations, and then act on it, as a Congress, in a
bipartisan fashion. Again, we will have reasoned debate over some of
the matters, but let's act on it. Let's do some things.
I agree with the gentleman that we need to revisit Article I. I
introduced that during the first Trump administration the first time,
and then we had it, obviously, during the Biden administration. I want
to revisit that. It is critically important.
I hope that the AUMF repeal for 2002 that was in the NDAA in the
Senate will be allowed to stay in the NDAA as it is coming back over to
the House. We shouldn't have a 23-year-old authorization for the use of
military force continuing to be under use. I hope that we in the House
will reclaim those portions of congressional authority.
I think this is an important step. It is critically important for due
process. I hope my colleagues in the Chamber will support it, and I
urge its swift passage. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my
time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, H.R. 2159, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________